The Rest Is Still Unwritten
by writerchick786
Summary: Dreams were made into realities, friendships were gained and lost. As the girls enter a new stage in life, they will discover happiness, grief and strength as they never have before. They will find out that they must have faith in each other to survive.
1. Where Your Book Begins

Kaylie Cruz let her warm chocolate brown eyes softly gaze around the fuchsia painted walls (why had she ever painted her walls such a bright color?) with the black stenciled designs on the wall (her mother's addition). She ran a hand down the soft pink, black, and white covering of her four poster bed and remembered sobbing her eyes out into the silk and cashmere blend comforter when she thought she was not going to be able to compete at World's. Her gaze fell to the brown leather bound notebook, distinctly remembering herself tearing out her food diary pages and writing "My name is Kaylie Cruz and I am anorexic" and finally coming to terms with her disorder.

The far wall was her special, favorite part of her bedroom, what her father had dubbed "The Achievement Wall". It was even better than the plush, queen-sized bed with the brass headboard and piles of thick, soft bedding and pillows.

She had hung representations of the most important things in her life. In the center of the wall was a family picture of her mother, father, her older brother Leo and her. She had it developed in black and white, blown up to the size of a small poster, and framed in a black frame.

On one corner of the wall, going from top to bottom, was a row of her friends. The smiling faces of Lauren Tanner, Payson Keeler, Emily Kmetko, and Kelly Parker jumped out at her, however there were other Rock girls she didn't see much anymore and the other World and Olympic team members. She had left a space in the middle of the framed 5x8 pictures and framed an old ad campaign, from the very early days, and hung it that space. An ad for Elite Gymnast leotards, with little ten-year-old Kaylie Cruz smiling brightly doing the splits on the beam.

The rest of the wall was very nostalgic as well. A copy of her learner's permit, a corsage from Payson's prom, her acceptance letter into NYU, and her medals from the various meets and events, the most important of which were the medals from the Rock meet against China, Worlds and the 2012 Olympics as well as numerous pictures of important days or just pictures that were important to her were hung up neatly on her wall.

She sure was going to miss this room.


	2. Just A Small Town Girl

Payson Keeler ran a hand over her Olympic Gold medals (one for the USA Team Medal and one for her a triple twisting Yurchenko style vault) fondly remembering Sasha's supportive words to her when he gave her his Gold medal and told her that she could return it to him after she won her Gold medal. She had achieved it. She had achieved her dreams.

However she sadly was not going to be able to compete again in the 2016 Olympics. Although Dr. Kleister's surgery had worked very well, a bad landing during a post-Olympics gymnastics benefit caused discs in her lower back to become irritated and prevented her from training. Payson's doctor said the same thing she had said to her after her fall at Nationals: "_Payson, you really need to stop gymnastics if you want to be able to walk when you get older"_ so Payson decided to retire and go into coaching, like an amazing coach she knew. She had achieved everything she had ever dreamed about. It was time to let other people achieve that same dream.

She glanced at her room. Nothing too shabby; obviously not nearly as extravagant as the rooms of her friends Kaylie Cruz and Lauren Tanner who's families were richer than her family could ever dream to be, but Payson loved it.

The walls were painted a simple shade of grey. Payson smiled slightly remembering when they hadn't been painted at all when they first moved here when she was 12 and Becca was 9 and Becca pitched a fit because "everyone else at the Rock has painted rooms and ours are boring!" Never mind the fact that the shade of grey that Kim and Mark picked out was possibly more boring than the original white but it had pacified Becca and Payson was too busy thinking of where she was going to hang her Gold medals and put her trophies to care something as trivial as the color of the walls.

Payson looked at her bed and remembered when Mark had changed her high, small twin sized bed after her accident at Nationals here was a queen sized bed that was much lower to the ground so that she could easily get in and out of it. The bedding was really nice, too. Payson remembered going to the store with her mother to pick them out herself. The sheets were striped in a pattern of blue, grey, and white while each of the regular pillows in were solid colored and blue. There were two long body pillows, with the striped pattern, as well as a matching bed skirt. Her comforter was thick, plushy, and blue.

A shelf held a few of Payson's favorite books, some well-worn stuffed animals from her childhood, old trophies and medals from various events and of course, framed photos of important things in her life, the most obvious of which was a family photo, taken in their living room. There was one of all four Rock girls, the 2012 Olympic team, a Healthy Bar ad and last but most certainly not least, her NYU acceptance letter. Looking at the last two frames, she was sad that the Healthy Bar ad had caused her to forfeit her academic scholarship so she was unable to accept the scholarship to Stanford (not to mention the fact that it was also a scholarship to be on their gymnastics team and she was not doing gymnastics anymore) but it still would be nice to go to Stanford, an Ivy league school in beautiful and sunny California. But, she would be with Kaylie so she was happy.

Of course, there were downsides to leaving Boulder. Not only would Becca totally take her room (Becca had always wanted Paysons's room seeing as Becca's room was almost half the size of Payson's) she would not have her family nearby, she couldn't run to her mother and father and ask for her advice. One thing was for sure, her long distance bills were going to be off the charts with all the times she would be calling her home.

Yet as scary as it was, she couldn't wait to start her new life.


	3. Let Your Colors Burst

**Authors Note: Thank you to anyone who has reviewed this … I know there is only one of you guys so far but thanks. And here I thought no one would review lol**

**To the one special reviewer: Evelina: Thanks for the review. My favorite character is Kaylie as well and my second favorite is Payson so we have something in common there. I may or may not keep the couples. I am a fan of Max (but I'm probably going to rewrite the bisexuality thing since that came out of nowhere with almost no development) but I am not a fan of KayAus. No offense to people who like them, but I think Austin has sort of a "hero's complex". He constantly wants to save people. First its Emily in France when she couldn't get a ticket back, then it was Emily with her floor routine when she was all doubting herself and feeling like she wasn't good enough (oh right … that's ALL THE TIME with her character ****rolls eyes****) then it was Kaylie with her eating disorder, then it was Emily again with her ankle monitor/leg warmers, then it was Payson with her trying to be "sexy" (BTW funniest scene EVER!) and now its Kaylie with her eating disorder again. I'm sorry, but I don't see anything romantic between them. He just wants to "save" her. So to answer your question, maybe to Max/Payson and probably not to KayAus.**

**And in conjunction with the no KayAus, would readers rather have Kaylicky (Kaylie/Nicky Russo) or Kaylie/OC (someone original that I make up)? Let me know in reviews! Thanks. Onwards with the story!**

Lauren Tanner had never been one to have many keepsakes. Unlike her best friend, Kaylie Cruz, who she has known since they were both four years old and in the Tumbling Tots program at the Rock, she doesn't save every little thing that has sentimental value. It just clutters things up.

Now don't get her wrong, she isn't some sort of devil child who doesn't care about sentiment and whatnot. She is just … how shall we put this? … Smart about it. She keeps a few things that have a lot of sentimental value rather than a crapload of things with a little sentimental value. It saves space when you need to pack, like Lauren is doing right now.

Off to New York she goes, off to show the world what a gorgeous model she can be. Sure, she isn't the right height to be a model (doing hardcore gymnastics for the past twelve years had stunted her growth and although she had grown a bit in the year she took off after the Olympics, she was still only 5'4, not nearly tall enough to be a model) but Lauren has always been someone to challenge the system and to what she wants when she wants. She will be the most gorgeous short model there is. Take that Tyra Banks.

Lauren had already packed up her most of her room. Her clothes, accessories and makeup alone took up a trunk and a one and a half suitcases and she was now gathering the bedsheets, pillow cases and comforter that Summer (her father Steve's wife and Lauren's adoptive mother) had bought for her. She packed them into the less full suitcase admiring the splashes of orange, yellow, and red on the sheets and loving how Summer had chosen the perfect sheets for her.

Lauren then gathered the few sentimental keepsakes she had. She first put her bronze medal from the meet against China, her gold Team medal and her Silver medal on Beam from Worlds and her gold Team medal and Silver on Beam from the 2012 Olympics in between the bedsheets (the rest of her medals and trophies from various competitions would stay home for the trophy case that Steve had built especially for that purpose). Next she put some photos (one of her and her mother from a long time ago, a family photo taken in Rio the day after Worlds where Steve and Summer got married, a photo of her, Kaylie and her old team member Emily Kmetko from the "Rock Rebels" photoshoot, a photo of her, Kaylie and another one of her best friends, Payson Keeler and finally team photos from various gymnastics events) into an album which she put into the suitcase on top of the bedsheets. Finally she picked up the letter her mother had given to her before she died, folded it carefully and slipped it into the zipper pocket of her Louis Vuitton tote bag. She liked having a bit of her mother with her all the time.

Lauren looked back at the room with the pale orange (the paint was called "Creamsicle" and even Lauren could admit that she was having a craving for the not-allowed-for-gymnasts-to-eat popsicles when she picked out _that_ color) and saw the empty walk-in closet, the bare vanity style desk, and the queen sized canopy bed stripped of its sheets. She could hear Summer cooking breakfast and Steve complaining about how there wasn't any bacon and why did the whole family have to go along with Summer's "vegetarian thing" and Summer argue with him about cholesterol. At that moment she realized that there wasn't anywhere else she would rather be and sure hoped this modeling thing wasn't going to be as awful as she thought it was going to be right at that moment, a moment of not wanting to be alone, a moment of wanting to stay with her family forever. But life goes on and Lauren couldn't wait to go to the next chapter of her life.


	4. If You Love Me, You Sure Show It Strange

**Thanks so much for all the reviews I have been getting! I went from 1 lone review to 6 so I'm really excited!**

**To anonymous (Chapter 1 Review): Thanks so much, I tried to make their rooms fit what we saw on the show as well as add stuff that I felt complimented their personalities. And thanks for the NYU comment. I feel like New York is the perfect city for Kaylie**

**To AllieB0524: Thanks for the review. From what I've seen of whats on your favorite stories list, you seem to really like Emily's character. She may or may not be in this story**

**To anonymous (Chapter 3 Review): I can't believe I forgot about Kaymon/Daylie when I wrote that stuff in Chapter 2 lol. To answer your question, yes there is a chance of Kaylie/Damon … depending on the results of the poll in my profile.**

**To Majors Darlin: As I explained in the PM I understand why you feel the way you do about KayAus, everyone has different opinions. Not sure if I will have them in my story since I find it hard to write about couples which I don't like but I'll take it into consideration. And it will be a probably not to the Payson/Sasha but I will take Payson/OC into consideration.**

**To Evelina: I loved Nicky as well! I loved the chemistry they shared together and the couples was so much better than Payson/Nicky who were too alike to be interesting. I love the opposites attract couples so Kaylicky is one of my favorites.**

**Onwards with the story!**

Friendship was something Kelly Parker never really understood. She never realized what she was missing until that fateful day when Kaylie Cruz (aka She-Who-Got-Everything-Handed-To-Her-On-A-Silver-Platter, as Kelly liked to refer to her in her head) said _"I don't think I could have won Nationals without my friends" _and Kelly had thought in her head, thinking that it was because Kaylie was weak and that was why her gymnastics talent (or lack thereof) wasn't good enough to win. But nothing could escape that nagging feeling that this could be something to fill that void she felt.

She was never one to have pictures of friends. She never really let anyone in, she didn't have even one friend (As much as Kelly wanted to roll her eyes and punch Austin Tucker in his pretty-boy face, even she had to admit that he was right; Tessa _was_ just her "bootlicker"). Instead of friends, she has followers, people to surround herself with but who she never really let in emotionally. When she saw Kaylie Cruz's room (a room which looked like a Pepto Bismol bottle exploded) she noticed the abundance of framed photos of friends and family and instead of scoffing like she had wanted so badly to, she thought about her own room, filled to the brim with expensive hand-made furniture, amazing brand-name clothes, a trophy cabinet which was getting fuller and fuller by the day, but nothing that showed that anyone lived in the room. Nothing was out of place, seeing as the maid came in twice a day. Everything had to be perfect for her mother. No photos, no stuffed animals from childhood, nothing. The curtains were always kept closed in her room and in the rest of her house because her mother didn't want the sun to fade the expensive furniture.

The rest of her house doesn't feel like a home by any means either. There is no warmth at all. The kitchen doesn't emit the smell or freshly baked chocolate chip cookies; there are no sounds of raucous laughter or idle chatter; no family photos … nothing that made it seem like they were a family. The only photos in the house were photos of Kelly wearing medals at various events.

Kelly loved her mother, she really did, but at the same time, she missed her father, she liked how it felt to have Kaylie and then Lauren and Payson not just as her teammates (competition as her mother stated that gymnastics _was_ an individual sport) but also as her friends. She doesn't know how she's going to succeed without her mother but she hopes that her newfound friends will help her.

She remembers the day after the Olympics.

_She had gotten the All Around Bronze medal and Kaylie had gotten the All Around Silver. Her mother (who had decided to leave London right after Kelly had fallen on her second vault, something which she knew cost her the All Around Silver) had called her on her cell phone. Kelly had seen her mothers name flash across her Blackberry and her heart leaped. She headed into the public bathroom at Heathrow for some privacy, thinking that her mother had found out about her All Around medal and was calling to congratulate her! She wasn't and she didn't._

_Sheila berated Kelly for not getting the Gold and blamed her for all of money she had spent on advertising. She belittled her Bronze medal, taunting her about Kaylie doing better than her. Basically her mother was downright horrible to her and at the moment, Kelly realized that her mother had always been like this and Kelly had just let her. She hung up the phone in shock, barely noticed the people hurrying in and out of the bathroom as she stood there silently. Suddenly, her stomach lurched and she barely managed to make it to a toilet in time. Squatting down beside the cool, yellowing toilet, she wiped her tears away and managed to shakily stand up. Here she was, cool, calm, collected Kelly Parker, hunched over a toilet bowl because of her mothers words. Words that never changed over the years. Words that would always stay the same. It was then that she realized that instead of what her mother saying making her strong (like Sheila constantly claimed when Kelly talked about her other teammates supportive parents) it made her weak._

And Kelly Parker was not weak.


	5. Forever, Email My Heart

**Hey Evelina! Glad to see you reviewing so diligently! You should think of making a account so that I can reply to your reviews and we can PM each other about the story. You don't even need to write/publish any stories or anything like that. And to answer your question, right now (I hope). Well, a little bit. This is just an intro so to speak into the drama.**

**Hi AnMarie10! I can only assume the story made you happy because you put two happy faces lol … as I asked in my reply to your review what about the story do you like/not like?, do you have any ideas you can give me?, etc.**

**And last but not least, S: Thanks, I really try to delve deeper than what is given on the show for the character pieces. I hope whats coming with Lauren's character is "unexpected" enough couple-wise. And as for Max, since Payson has only been with 3 guys (Nicky, Ike and Max,) I sort of chose the one I liked most (or rather hated less) because with Nicky it was too boring, they were too similar (which is why I love Kaylicky) and with Ike we saw him be annoying and then be nice and then they just dropped his character so it was like "... and now he's gone. Okay then." lol. That's why I like Max. But I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with them but I have some ideas.**

**Onwards with the story!**

This is ridiculous.

Here she was, Lauren Anastasia Tanner in The Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps, The Capital of the World, and what was she doing? Oh yeah, acting like a total Payson Keeler, staying at home with no life at all.

"Trash, trash, trash," Lauren muttered to herself as she clicked her way through her Hotmail account. "God, this stupid junk filter doesn't work at all!" she complained to no one in particular. Although she had been living in the city for almost a month now (she had moved at the start of April) she still hadn't made any friends. Without gymnastics, it was so hard.

Then she saw it. Underneath an email asking about Viagra samples (how disgusting) was an email from someone she hadn't seen in a long time.

Razor Anderson.

"Oh my god!" she gasped, hands flying to her mouth, nearly knocking her full mug of green tea onto the keyboard of her laptop. Thankfully, she caught the white and orange polka dotted mug before any of the tea spilled onto the keyboard. She set the mug down on one of the still-yet-to-be-opened boxes, far away from her Dell Inspiron laptop, an early birthday present from Summer.

She put her fingers on the trackpad of the Dell and hovered over Razor's email, debating whether or not to open it. Things between her and Razor were … complicated to say the least.

They became friends after the Olympics had ended and then only a few months later, he told her he and his bandmates were moving to California to try and get some label to sign The Shelter Pups. Lauren – who was never good with people leaving her – had said some things she wasn't proud of (_"As if your band would ever make it big without Damon, he was the only talented one in the band!"_) and although she apologized profusely to him at the airport and they had made up, they just kind of lost contact after a couple of months, both of them involved in their own separate lives. 'Separate' being the key word there. So, understandably, she was kind of surprised to receive any contact from him.

"Well, here goes nothing," Lauren said aloud. Click.

_YO BABYDOLL! SHOUTOUT TO LO TAN MAH GIRLFRAND LIVING UP THE PAR-TAY IN NEW YORK CIT-AY!_

_ROFL I'm totally kidding! God, wouldn't it be such a pain in the ass if someone actually talked like that in real life?_

_So, hey Lauren, what up? I kind of miss having my Rockstar from Boulder to talk to. Get it? Rock? Boulder? Haha I bet you miss my craptastic sense of humor don't you?_

_But in all seriousness, I hope things are going well for you in NYC. I know things have been a little weird between us ever since I left Boulder last year, but I'd really like us to be acquaintances again, at the very least._

_I emailed you because I'm actually heading to New York for a couple months. This label that likes our band has a couple of shows and meetings he wants us to attend, so we should try to meet up sometime and see where we stand with each other._

_Can't wait to see you_

_Razor_

Lauren stared at the screen of her laptop in shock. She reread the message and then reached back for her Blackberry where it was resting on a box marked 'KITCHEN ITEMS' and dialed Kaylie's cell phone number. Before Kaylie could say anything, Lauren read the email for her.

"Well?" she asked, after five minutes of Kaylie saying nothing. "Say something! … Anything!"

"Well …" Kaylie paused as if trying to find words. "… Lo, is there any chance that you and Razor had feelings for each other? Like other than friendship? Because, I mean, judging from your previous track record with guys … it could get messy and I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Oh yeah, like it got messy when you kissed Damon and then told Emily and then Emily ran away to Vegas? That kind of messy, Kaylie?" Lauren spat into the phone, wishing she had called someone else.

"Lauren! I'm only trying to help. If you want, I can just hang up this phone right now. You called me right in the middle of a game of Angry Birds and I'd much rather play that than get blamed for crap that not only happened like three years ago but wasn't even my fault in the first place!" Kaylie sounded close to tears and Lauren automatically felt horrible. She knew Kaylie had spent many therapy sessions trying to come to terms with the fact that it wasn't her fault that Emily left and here she was, putting salt on the wound.

"I didn't mean to bring that up … I'm sorry Kaykay," Lauren whispered using the nickname she gave Kaylie when they were both seven. She raised her voice higher. "And I hardly ever apologize for anything, so you know I mean it."

Kaylie laughed. "That _is_ true," she agreed. "And Kaykay? You haven't called me that since gymnastics camp when we were seven."

"I know, I guess I'm feeling a little homesick or something. When are you and Payson and Kelly getting here? I have no friends here and it sucks!"

"Well orientation doesn't begin until the end of August and Pay and I wanted to spend as much time with our families are possible. We're not moving until like mid August or something. My ticket is with Payson and I'm seeing her tomorrow so we can make our class schedules so I'll double-check the date and text you when we'll be arriving." She paused for a second and then said, "now we've been sidetracked enough, lets talk about that email. You never answered my question, Lo."

"Yeah … I guess we – well I … had feelings for him. I'm not sure about him though and I am through with dating guys who don't love me. It happened with Carter, it happened with Max, and I don't want to ruin my already fragile friendship – or whatever the hell it is – with Razor."

"Good for you, you're acting mature, Lauren," said Kaylie. "Now, another important question: do you still have feelings for him?"

"No! … Well, maybe? … I don't know! I'm just so confused," Lauren whined. "Why does he have to go and stir up old feelings in the first place? God damn. He's the one who left. He's the one who chose to leave me."

"Lo, I thought you were okay with everything that happened? Why didn't you talk to me about this before?" Kaylie asked. Lauren could tell she was genuinely worried. Lauren heaved a sigh, trying to find the right words.

"Being okay with it now doesn't mean it didn't really hurt me in the first place," she replied quietly, swallowing the lump that was forming in her throat. Her hazel eyes were stinging and she knew tears would come any second.

Stupid email. Stupid Razor. She was supposed to be over him.


	6. Orange Popsicles and Lemonade

**Sorry for the lack of updates, I finished summer classes and had exams and then started my hectic training week for my new job. Updates will not be very frequent because of my job but I promise you I will update lol**

**Evelina with regards to Lauren's character, while I do hate her on the show, I feel like she may be a bitch but she's more misunderstood. The thing I actually hate about her character on the show is the fact that she never gets comeuppance for her actions. I actually don't mind her character that much and feel like she's more misunderstood and jaded about her view of life. So you will see a different side of Lauren than you would in the show.**

**anonymous11 I really loved Razor's character and really wanted him with one of the girls and because of his chill/relaxed personality and her bitch of the beam attitude and both of their sarcastic personalities, I thought they would make an interesting pairing. Glad you like it.**

**Amy thank you I'll mentally add your vote to the poll. I do agree with you about Kaylie and Damon not having enough time to develop but I'll probably be focusing less on romance because that's sort of what bugs me in the show, like its not possible to be a girl and not have a love interest. I feel like romance is a very integral part of life but I'd rather focus on other deeper stuff.**

**Thank you Mandie! I'm so glad that as an English teacher you think my writing is good and thank you for your praise on my random character pieces lol. Like I said above in my reply to Amy, I will focus on the romance (because what kind of a young adult story will it be without a little romance lol) but I'd also like to try to delve a little deeper into other types of storylines. Thank you for the advice about run-on sentences. I am so bad with those lol. I will keep writing as long as you keep reviewing. How about that? LOL :)**

**Onwards to the story!**

The sun was shining, the weather was the ideal balance – not rainy and depressing yet also not swelteringly hot – and the sky was a perfect cloudless blue. Perfect Boulder weather for Kaylie's last couple of months in the city. She and Payson were lounging in beach chairs by the Cruz's backyard pool, sucking on Creamsicles and drinking tall cool glasses of lemonade.

Kaylie was wearing a soft fuchsia short-sleeved top, dark denim shorts and a pair of fuchsia gladiator sandals and her hair was left out with the silky black waves tumbling down her back. With that, she was wearing a ring with an oversized black stone and a white and fuchsia polka-dotted bracelet. Payson was wearing a cream colored t-shirt with "Que Sera Sera" written on it in cute colorful letters with a pair of light wash high-waisted denim shorts, and purple flats. Her long dirty blonde hair was straightened with her bangs pinned back into a pouf and she had accessorized with purple hoop earrings and a lime green bracelet. **(A/N: If you want to see the outfits, there are some links in my profile!) **They had spent the day poring over the NYU student handbook and the course catalogue.

"What about an Anthropology course?" Kaylie asked, jabbing a fuchsia painted fingernail at the course outline in the NYU course catalogue in Payson's hands. "There's one called Human Society and Culture. We would get to learn about why society works the way it does. Sounds like it could be exciting."

Payson glanced over at the area of the catalogue Kaylie was pointing at and read the course outline in her head. Sounded interesting enough. Then her pale blue eyes fell to when the course was taking place. Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:30. "Damn," she swore slightly under her breath. Kaylie looked at her questioningly. Payson raised her voice slightly, "I can't do it, the time conflicts with the Intro to Sports Management course that I need to take."

Kaylie groaned and Payson felt her disappointment. Unlike Kaylie's Business Degree, where she could pick and choose courses and do the required courses whenever she wanted, Payson's Sports Management degree had a set schedule of courses which all students were expected to follow (**A/N: This is just for the purposes of the story. I don't go to NYU so I don't know if this is true or not. Don't take my word for it lol)**

"God Pay, this sucks! How are we supposed to take a course together if every time we find a course we both like, your Sports Management degree just screws it up?"

"I'm sorry Kaylie," Payson apologized. "Maybe you could just switch to a Sports Management degree or something?" she suggested hopefully.

"Business is a good degree if you don't know what you want to do according to my father," said Kaylie. "That way you have a solid foundation to do a number of things after you graduate even if you don't get an MBA."

"But the Sports Management degree is just so interesting. Plus if I ever want to run The Rock or any other gym for that matter, the stuff I'll be learning will help me."

"Yeah, but you'd basically be running a business so a business degree would help too," Kaylie pointed out. "Besides, you already know so much about sports. You went to the Olympics for God's sake! Wouldn't it be a lot more interesting to do something you don't know anything about? I mean, why don't you want to challenge yourself?"

Payson shrugged, absent-mindedly flipping though the course catalogue.

Kaylie winced slightly at the expression on Payson's face knowing that with the amount of money Healthy Bar gave to her after her one-legged vault landing at Worlds and her impressive Gold on Floor and Silver on Vault at the Olympics, that she could have afforded to go to college anywhere and chose NYU because Kaylie was going there.

And then she remembered how lost Payson looking at the huge list of the degree programs offered at NYU and how happy she was when she read about the Sports Management degree. She had even confided in Kaylie that she felt like she was taking "the easy way out" seeing as she already knew a lot about sports and Kaylie knew by saying something about challenging herself, that she hit a nerve.

"Pay, I'm sorry, I didn't mean …"

Payson cut her off. "Kaylie its fine. Seriously. I know that this probably isn't challenging me but I feel like I've challenged myself enough with being an elite gymnast and I just want the college experience. Besides, I may know a lot about sports but I don't know a lot about the sports world and how its run and that could be interesting."

"Again, Pay, I'm really sorry," Kaylie said, hating the fact that she sometimes had no tact. God, she really reminded herself of Lauren in that moment especially considering the phone call she and Lauren had shared the other day.

Something caught her eyes. "Hey look!" she said, taking the catalogue out of Payson hands, ignoring Payson's shout of "I was looking at that!" she pointed at a course. "Spanish for Beginners" she read. She looked up at Payson. "How 'bout it?" Payson gave her an expression of utter disbelief and opened her mouth. Before Payson could say a word, Kaylie hurriedly said, "look I know you failed miserably at the Spanish when we had to film those videos for Rio at Worlds, but my family is Spanish and I'm pretty good at the language and we can totally study together. I'll help you and we'll both ace the course for sure."

"Fine," Payson agreed, more than anything wanting Kaylie to stop rambling about the course.

"Besides we made that World's video …" Kaylie – who was about to state that that the Worlds videos happened nearly three years ago – stopped, unsure of what Payson had just said. "… Wait, did you just say 'fine'?" Kaylie asked incredulously.

Payson laughed at Kaylie's expression, which was an adorable mixture of confused and surprised and nodded. "You did say I needed to challenge myself. Why not try this? I might make a fool of myself, but then again, I've been doing a sport that gives you a ton of wedgies and I'm prancing around in leotards, so taking a simple Spanish class should be a cinch."

Kaylie laughed. "All right! We're taking Spanish for Beginners this fall! NYU here we come!"


	7. Unopened Letters to the World

**Again, I am so so so sorry for the lack of updates as of late. My job has been so hectic, I get up at 6:30 and don't come home again until 6:30 and then straight to yoga and then when I get home I'm just so tired that I barely have time to watch Degrassi and Pretty Little Liars before sleeping lol**

**Megan, thank you for the review. About the KayAus request, I don't like the couple at all for many reasons but I can try to have them together for part of the story since some of my reviewers seem to like them together. But unfortunately, they will probably not be endgame. So sorry again.**

**Riptide2015 thanks for the review! Yes, Kaylie is very excited, isn't she? She's such a cutie and I love writing her when she's all happy and sweet rather than melodramatic like she is on the show a lot lol**

**klhansen22 I know this review was sent nearly a month and a half ago but it is continuing. At the pace of an extremely slow turtle moving through molasses but continuing none the less lol**

**To everyone I'll try to update a little more but can't make any promises. ****Sadly I've sort of ignored this story and my reviwers but I know that "canceling" it is out of the question. It will resume and finish one day! Over and out. **

_Dear Kelly, you may not remember me but …_

Oh god, not one of _these_ letters again. A letter from one of the many fans she had met over the years. They all thought that Kelly remembered every single fan that came up to her all excited chirping, "Oh my god! Oh my god! You're Kelly Parker! I'm [insert name here] and I'm your biggest fan!" The fans were awesome and it was nice to be loved but man, they could be annoying and none of them seemed to understand the concept of private time.

She did what she usually did with these kinds of letters: not even finish reading the letter and just put it in a pile of letters that would be sent a generic form letter and an autographed headshot.

But still, something about the uneven cursive print, the emerald green ink, the slight loopiness of the letters made Kelly remember a warm laugh, a sweet smile, and a loving hug. Shaking off this sappy sentimental feeling (who was she, Kaylie Cruz?) she made the decision to put the letter aside and get her assistant Tessa (yes _that_ Tessa) to read it and update the form letter with the fans name, gather up the pre-autographed headshot and mail the letter out.

Kelly knows she should be packing, but instead she's lying on her queen-sized bed, auburn-streaked dark hair spilling across the pale green palm-tree printed comforter, obsessively checking her Blackberry to see if the BBM she had sent was still marked as "unread" or if the status had changed to "read". Unlike texting, once you sent a text, you don't know if the other person had opened it and not cared enough to send a reply or if they just hadn't opened it yet, until, of course, you get a reply from them. With BBM, however, the message status will be "unread" if the person hadn't opened it yet and "read" if they had. Kelly knew that if the status had been "read" for quite a while and she still hadn't gotten a reply yet, that this person was not fit to be inside Kelly Parker's inner circle of friends. Thank god Blackberry made it so easy to stalk people.

The unread message icon was still there. Damn, she thought, she had sent this message almost 24 hours ago and from experience, she knew that she was always glued to his Blackberry; it was like it was a part of her. She let her eyes stray towards the name of the person: Shelia Buboyan.

Tears pricked her eyes and she looked around the room, her eyes falling on the framed photo of the Olympic team on her desk, noticing Kaylie Cruz, Payson Keeler and Lauren Tanner in particular. What would her friends say about her trying to contact her mother?

At once Kaylie Cruz's soft and girly voice filled her head, sounding anxious.

"_Your mother? I mean, come on KP, just think about how she treated you over the years. You can't just come crawling back to her … I mean, yes she is your mother but it takes someone really special to be a mom. Not that I'm trying to say that my mother is better than yours its just that … well you know what I'm talking about. Unless you don't … you know, my mom sucks too … damn, that came out wrong. I'm rambling aren't I?"_

Kelly smiled slightly thinking that was exactly how Kaylie would respond in a situation like this. She means well and always knows exactly what to say from the start but her rambling usually got the better of her. But she didn't understand. Sure, Alex and Ronnie Cruz were not going to win Parent of Year but she had her parents and they believed in her.

Speaking of "Parent of the Year", Payson Keeler's amazing parents what her argument would be even more null and void than Kaylie's. Still Payson's freckle covered face with her blonde hair slicked back into a bun seemed to swim before Kelly, wearing a concerned expression.

"_Kel, I'm not going to pretend like I know what you're going through but I watched Kaylie and Lauren through the years enough to know that when your parents really don't care about anything other than your degree of difficulty and getting ahead in life, its just like having no parents at all because no one loves you for you. I know that you want so badly to be accepted by your mother and I'm not going to go around forbidding you from contacting her because its your life and you can do what you want. You definitely deserve the love of your mother but you have to think to yourself does she really deserve you?"_

This was what made Payson a much better leader than Kaylie. Both really cared about their teammates and both knew what to say to someone when they were feeling down or unsure about themselves, but Payson could actually follow through with advice giving instead of doing what Kaylie does best, going into typical Kaylie Cruz freak out mode.

Last but most certainly not least was Lauren Tanner. What would Lauren say? She knew Lauren had more of grasp on Kelly's feelings, on what she was going through, way more than Kaylie or Payson ever could. Lauren's husky voice filled her head.

"_Kelly, I know what you're going through okay? I lost my mother, she left us and my father never really instilled good values in me. And even though he has changed, there's still this nagging voice in my head that reminds me of all the horrible stuff he did over the years. I mean we're part of the same boat, right? Our dear old parents were really fucked up and then they really fucked us up. The way I see it, its their loss."_

Kelly almost laughed out loud. She knew that the bluntness combined with the concern was exactly what Lauren Tanner would say, had she been standing in front of Kelly.

And even though it was all in her head, she felt more at peace because of the "advice" that was given to her by her friends.

When had she become such a sap?


End file.
